Category Archives: recipe

Post navigation

So, my goal this year is to convert some of my Slow Cooker recipes for use in the Instant Pot. This one is loosely based off some of the Beef and Vegetable Soups listed in the Fix-it and Forget-It Cookbook Feasting with your Slow Cooker by Dawn J. Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good.

I used those recipies as a starting point and then used what we had in the house.

Ingredients:

Approximately 1 pound of beef cut into small pieces

2 pounds of fresh vegetables which included

2 potatoes roughly chopped

3 large carrots roughly chopped

cut up celery ribs

cut up fresh green beans

flour (any, but in my case gluten-free)

garlic powder to taste

onion powder to taste

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1/4 medium onion chopped

28 oz can of diced tomatoes

32 oz beef stock (I use the kind in a box)

olive oil

Mix the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper in a plastic bag or in the bottom of a pie tin. Dredge the beef pieces through the flour mixture.

Plug in your Instant Pot and turn on to Saute

Pour a small amount of olive oil into the Instant Pot.

Put the beef pieces in the Instant Pot and brown. Remove the beef pieces after they are all partly browned.

Add the beef broth, diced tomatoes, vegetables, chopped onion and beef pieces to the Instant Pot while it is still on the Saute setting.

Stir all the ingredients together.

Add stock until it is below the Max Line.

Keep using the Saute feature until the liquid starts to get hot.

Turn off the Instant Pot and then set it to High Pressure for about 10 minutes.

After it is done, turn off the Instant Pot and do a Quick Release of the pressure.

Check that the liquid level still covers all of the ingredients. Add more liquid, if needed.

Use the Slow Cook feature and set to ‘More’ (high temperature setting) and for over 4 hours.

After about 5 hours we were hungry. The potatoes and carrots were soft and it smelled amazing.

I actually had two cooked, plain, shredded chicken breasts in the fridge that I didn’t have a plan for. So, I put the shredded meat in a saucepan and made the sauce with the addition of the juice from one Halo mandarins. I then simmered it on medium-low for about 30 minutes.

After than I followed the actual recipe. The husband commented on how good the house smelled when he came in the door and was more than happy to eat three tacos with this meat in them for dinner.

So, let me know if you try it and if you liked it. This is definitely going in my list of Go To meals.

So, you all know that I try to be thrifty by doing DIY projects, making food from scratch, using coupons, find deals at the Thrift Stores and finding the best deals on the new items or services we need to buy. Well, another way is by keeping your family on a budget (and one that works is even better).

I am glad I got it since it reminded me of categories that I sometimes forget to budget for (like recently needing tires for our truck [which I found a sale on] and now it sounds like we will need them for the car also this year – ouch, definitely not something I planned for, but I will be looking for a deal on those also).

I will continue to tweak our budget using the tips in Jessi’s book.

So, would you like to win a FREE copy of the Build a Budget that Works book? I was given one copy to give away to a reader.

Between now and Thursday 20 November 2014 make a comment (which will be delayed in posting since I have to approve them) with your name and email address. After that I will pick a winner using a Random Number Generator (hey, I have to use something nerdy).

Well, I have worked on a couple of posts in the last few days with the intention of posting at least one soon. But, I made these amazing Chicken Drumsticks (gluten free even) tonight so I had to share it first.

I had done a search for ‘spicy chicken legs’ and this recipe caught my attention:

I made a couple of minor changes since I didn’t have a pan that could be used on the stovetop and then put in the oven.

a) I put a little butter in a 13×9 baking pan and put it in the oven so it would be hot when the chicken was ready to be put in the oven. (When I put the chicken in the pan I added a little olive oil also.)

b) I ended up cooking the chicken at 375 degrees F by accident (and my chicken drumsticks were really meaty) so I cooked them for 45 minutes.

Oh, and I added the link to my ‘Links to other peoples gluten-free recipes’ page which is under ‘Gluten free pages’ so I can also find it easily in the future.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. We were supposed to go out of town to visit family, but the family is sick. So, we decided to stay home.

Yesterday we went to Costco and they had their (wheat) Carrot Cake Cupcakes on sale. They looked so good! I didn’t pick any up, but I did come home and decided to make some Gluten-free ones. Not sure if mine cost less, but I at least was able to control all of the ingredients that went into them.

Oh, and by the way I added a page that lists other people’s gluten-free recipes that I have tried and liked. This is partly so I don’t have to keep finding the recipe and to give you some help also. Your welcome.

I knew I had to figure out how to make it gluten-free for my family. This recipe is a HIT with my family. Up until now I had only done it with skinless/boneless chicken breast, but today I decided to do it with skinless chicken thighs.

I use my version of Season All (without the curry) – another one of my posts: http://wp.me/p2CNE7-5O

Here are my revised instructions:

Place thawed chicken breast tenderloin (or I have used thighs) strips in a bowl of milk. Let soak for 20-30 min.

Mix in a Gallon Size Ziploc or Large Bowl:

1 Tablespoon Season All – I used my version of this – http://wp.me/p2CNE7-5O

3/4 teaspoon Pepper

1 cup Flour (Gluten-free with no xanthan gum)

2 teaspoon Paprika

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut 1/2 stick of butter into a few pieces and place in a 9×13 pan. Melt butter in pre-heated oven.

Spread melted butter around the bottom of the pan. Lightly spray the pan, if needed, to make sure that there are no dry spots.

Shake excess milk off of chicken and completely coat each piece with the seasoning mix. You can either shake the chicken in the bag, until coated, or dip each piece in the bowl until coated.

Place each piece of chicken in the pan.

Cook for 20 min. Turn each piece of chicken and continue cooking for 20 more minutes, or until cooked through.

(I cooked the chicken thighs for 30 minutes, turned and then cooked for 30 additional minutes.)

When I found the recipe for Baked ‘Fried’ Chicken (my gluten-free version will be posted soon) I knew I had to change it to gluten-free, but I realized I didn’t have Season All in the house (and wasn’t really sure what it was). So, I did a Google search for a Season All recipe:

When I started to make it I realized I didn’t have any curry in the house. So, I made the spice mix without it. My family liked the flavoring of the Gluten-free Baked ‘Fried’ Chicken better than the taste of KFC chicken. I wonder if the KFC spices has curry in it…..

When I was growing up my mom always made Bisquick type biscuits for Strawberry Shortcake and I continued to make it for years, but in a gluten-free form. When strawberries first hit the local stores a few months ago I went looking for a new recipe for Strawberry Shortcake (either gluten-free or regular since I knew how to revise the recipe). I found the following in a Google search: